In the name of the Risen Lord. Amen.
“I
am the vine, and you are the branches.” It’s such a great metaphor for the Christian
life and vocation. But I want to focus on the reading from Acts this morning,
so you’ll have to reflect on that metaphor throughout the week. Each verse of
this passage from the Acts of the Apostles is saturated with meaning. In the
John passage, Jesus speaks of bearing fruit, and this Acts passage is a great
description of what that might look like in a real life situation.
As
this reading began, Philip is directed to go out into the wilderness, and there
he sees a chariot with the eunuch in it. This whole episode takes place because
Philip noticed something. First, he noticed that God was speaking to him; and
secondly, he noticed the chariot. How much of life though do we not notice?
Whether we’re staring into our cell phones or are so focused on productivity
and projects, much of what goes on around us is ignored. It has been said that
strangers are gifts from God, and Philip took the time to notice this gift. I’ve
always been reserved and described as an introvert, and I’m working on being a
bit more open. And as I’ve been working on that, I’ve found that there are holy
stories happening all around us. I’m learning that in order to have those
conversations, I need to not worry about time so much. Instead of giving myself
5 minutes to get to a downtown meeting, I give myself 10 so that I can be
distracted along the way. And this is what we see Philip doing- trusting that
there is no such thing as an accident, but instead noticing all of the opportunities
that are around him.
Philip
also had some serious trust and courage. He was told to go down the wilderness
road from Jerusalem toward Gaza. Three years ago, I spent a month in Israel,
and I can attest to the fact that, even today, there’s a lot of wilderness. The
wilderness was a place of uncertainty- you could be ambushed or caught in a
sandstorm, not to mention the fact that there is nothing in the wilderness. But
Philip trusted that God was calling him there, and so he went. He did not
rationalize it and say to himself “there’s nothing in the wilderness, I could
better serve God by taking a trip up to the sea of Galilee;” no, he trusted
that there was something to his call.
This is a good lesson for
the modern church as well. Philip could have easily stayed in Jerusalem and
done his ministry. There was a lot to do there: church committees and poor people
to feed. But there was more ministry to be done out in the wilderness. One of
my biggest complaints against the modern church is the way that we’ve succumbed
to consumerism. We worry far too much about what people will find “on our
shelves” in the form of programs. I meet with people in the community a lot,
and I often get questions about programs for children, programs for outreach,
and style of worship. And this isn’t to belittle those aspects of our church
life- they are important. But no one has ever asked me “how does your community
support each other,” “how does your church embody hope,” “how does your church
transform people’s lives?” Those are the far more important questions, but we’ve
been well-trained by corporate America to view everything in terms of “what
value does this add to my life,” and so we treat faith as a product.
And so it’s not very
surprising that churches are often insular. We tend to focus on creating and
marketing products of faith instead of faith itself. And because we’re so
focused on our products, we end up spending too much time inside the walls of
our church. But just as God called Philip out of Jerusalem, God calls us
outside the walls of our church. Isn’t it interesting that when Jesus wanted to
get some disciples together, he didn’t put a sign on a palm tree that read “Discipleship
meeting, 7pm at the synagogue.” No, he went to meet people where they were. We,
as a church, would do well to remember this lesson- sometimes you have to go
out into the wilderness to follow a call.
Next, Philip approaches
the chariot and listens. He doesn’t offer a solution, he doesn’t pull up and
ask “Have you heard about Jesus Christ? Did you know that he died for your
sins?” He simply listens. And because he listened before he spoke an encounter
turned into a relationship. Philip could have seen his role as a teacher-
someone who imparts knowledge, but instead Philip acted a guide, a companion
along the journey. Both our readings from 1 John and John use the word “abide,”
which is a relational word. Abiding is about loving. Philip as a teacher could
have said “This is how you can become a follower of Jesus,” but instead he
abides with the eunuch by saying “This is what worked for me, try it out and I’ll
be here to help you.” We are an answer-oriented culture. We have think-tanks
and corporate restructuring experts who provide us with solutions to complex
problems. But life is not a problem to solve; it is a journey on which to give
and receive blessings. Philip resists the urge to simply impart knowledge, but instead
listens first, and therefore starts a relationship.
Philip then opens himself
up to hospitality. What’s so interesting about hospitality is that a lot of
people talk about how Jesus practiced radical hospitality. But he didn’t
really. Very rarely does Jesus ever invite anyone to a meal. But Jesus is very
often invited into peoples’ homes for a meal. How could an itinerant preacher
really offer much hospitality anyway? Philip models his ministry on that of Jesus.
He exudes the love and grace of God, and people respond to that by saying, “why
don’t you join me?” And this is even more powerful. It’s one thing to show
hospitality, but it is even greater to encourage it in others.
Hospitality is about
opening yourself to the other. Again, Philip asks a question instead of
producing an answer, and in opening the dialogue, the eunuch responds with
hospitality. The eunuch though shows another form of hospitality, and that is a
sense of hospitality towards God. So often we think that we have it all figured
out, that we know what God thinks about a certain issue and we, inadvertently,
close ourselves off to God.
Deuteronomy very clearly
states “no eunuch shall be admitted to the assembly of the Lord.” A eunuch is a
castrated man. This was done, before hormones set in, making them the perfect
servants for the royal family, because they were free of desires and
temptations. But according to the law of God, as it was understood, this made
eunuchs impure when it came to sexual morality. And he was also an Ethiopian, so
he was also ethnically different.
But he was unwilling to
close God out. Something obviously spoke to him, otherwise he wouldn’t have
gone to Jerusalem to worship and he wouldn’t have been reading a scroll of
Isaiah. Perhaps he had read the passage in Isaiah that says “even the eunuch
who keeps the Sabbath will be welcome in my house.” The eunuch was open to
there being a new possibility. His humble admission that he didn’t know it all opened
him to having God’s truth abide in him. Though he would have been treated with
contempt, he knew that there must be a deeper truth than hatred and exile. And
through his hospitality and invitation to Philip, the eunuch found God’s
hospitality towards him.
So often we focus on
Scripture and quote it back and forth with each other. Deuteronomy versus Isaiah.
Things really haven’t changed much- just this past week the Supreme Court heard
arguments that stem from the modern day version of this. Some will says “well,
the Bible clearly says.” But the eunuch knew that that the words on the page
are nothing more than words on the page. What is more important than the words
of Scripture is the God who is behind the Scripture. If God is the law-giver,
then God is also the law-transcender.
Philip and the Eunuch
then get into the Scripture passage at hand. It’s notable that Philip doesn’t
say to him, “now let me show you an even better passage,” but instead he stays
with him, reinforcing the previous lesson about listening before responding.
What I want to point out about this section is that he shares the Good News of
Jesus Christ with the eunuch. Good News. Not shame, not fear, not guilt, but
Good News. If you were to describe the central slogan of Christianity, as
expressed by a majority of people, it would be something like “Jesus died for
your sins, so believe in him and you will be saved.” That doesn’t sound like
Good News to me though. It starts with death, talks about sin, and makes you
wonder what happens to those who don’t believe. But there is so much Good News
to share- love, peace, justice, transformation, reconciliation. Let that be the
message that we share.
Finally, action comes.
Again, we like solutions, but the action only comes at the end of the
narrative. The eunuch sees a body of water and says “what is to prevent me from
being Baptized?” Philip again guides instead of directing. Philip doesn’t point
out the water, he lets the eunuch progress in his journey of faith in his own
time. And the answer to this question is “nothing.” Nothing is to prevent him
from being baptized.
And I can’t help but
think of the ways in which we put up barriers to Baptism. Well, you have to
attend classes first, or we need your full name to fill out the certificate properly,
or you need to come to the baptism practice. And those are just some of the
Sunday morning hurdles. How about the barriers that are put up in other ways?
People the church doesn’t reach, people who hear more judgment than grace from the
Church, people who don’t have the right clothes to fit in? This passage is so
full of lessons, but if I had to pick only one to remember, it would be this
one- nothing is to prevent people from coming to God. It didn’t matter that
this man was a eunuch who was not supposed to have any share in God’s assembly,
it didn’t matter that he was a foreigner. It doesn’t matter if you are rich or
poor, gay or straight, if you dropped out of high school or if you have a
Ph.D., if you are young or old, if you are black, white, or brown, if you are
Republican or Democrat, if you cheer for Duke or Carolina, or if you’re smart,
Wake Forest. None of that matters, nothing is to prevent you from coming to
God, and we should not put up any barriers to doing so.
In just a few moments we’re
going to welcome into the Body of Christ Trey Reamer through the Sacrament of
Baptism. But there’s more water back there than we need for his Baptism. If you
haven’t yet been baptized, but want to be, then when the hymn starts after this
sermon, please join us in the Baptistery. I’m serious. We’ll figure out the
logistics, we’ll figure out the course of instruction and certificates later.
What is to prevent you from being baptized? Not a thing.
And for those of us who
have been baptized already- what is to prevent those who are not here this
morning from joining us next Sunday? This story about Philip and the eunuch is
a story of evangelism. It is a story of listening and noticing, of guiding and
sharing, of hospitality and grace. It is a story that needs to be not just read
and understood, but reenacted. What is interesting is that this is the first
time in Scripture that the narrative takes place on the African continent. Today,
61% of Christians are located in the Global South, that is, Africa, Asia, and
Latin America. Philip’s action of listening, inviting, and guiding has transformed
the face of Christianity, and we can do the same.
I truly believe that God
is calling us out into the wilderness. We have a new mission field, and it is
not a far away land. It is our own neighborhoods, it is the millennial generation,
it is the academy, it is the inner city. In light of this reading from Acts,
let it be our task to dismantle whatever obstacles to faith exist. May we be
ready to listen and both guide and be guided to the love of God. Let us share
the Good News of God in Christ, and in particular the blessings of The
Episcopal Church. May there be nothing that stands between God and those who want
to come to the waters of Baptism. Amen.
